My Duolingo Addiction

I am addicted to Duolingo, the language learning app. I liked it well enough when I was using it on my desktop, but now that I have it on my smartphone, it’s my nightlight and my blanky all wrapped up in one. This could explain my recently developed wrist and hand pain, but I can’t give it up. I love the little trumpet bursts when I’m successful, and I love when a previously red or green circle turns gold, because I have (temporarily) mastered a skill. I do a little bit of Spanish, French, and Hebrew every day (who am I kidding, I do A LOT). I have to force myself not to add a fourth language to my training program (Italian? Russian? Yiddish? Do they even have Yiddish?).

Cricket is, of course, fascinated.

It’s hard to know how much I’m really learning and how much I’m just punch drunk with the positive reinforcement. I was never much of a video game player as a kid. I tried Pac Man and Miss Pac Man and Frogger, but I never bothered to compete for high scores or move on to the more intense role playing games. But if I’d had a smartphone programmed with Duolingo and Typing Tutor (one of my old time favorites) and other learning games, I would have been a goner.

I always identified more with the ghosts than with Pac Man.

I’m pretty sure Cricket is learning by osmosis, just hearing all of these languages pouring out of my phone. But if she’s mastering any of it, she’s keeping it close to the fur. So far her primary language remains barking, and no matter how long she tutors me in this complicated communication system, I still can’t seem to master it. Clearly she needs to create an app for that.

Cricket could be reciting her theory of how to achieve peace on earth. I’d never know.

My long term goal with Duolingo is to improve my language skills to the point where I can actually use them, with people, but for now, there’s something so calming and low stress about it. Especially compared to all of the other learning tasks I have at the moment. Read two hundred pages and distill it all down to two paragraphs with citations, by tomorrow! Observe a group, without taking notes, and then produce a verbatim account of two hours of dialogue, and don’t forget anything important!

The more stressed I feel, the more time I want to spend doing Spanish exercises. I am at risk of getting to the point where there aren’t enough hours in the day, and I’ll have to decide what’s more important, getting my school work done or fueling my addiction. I’m sure I’ll come to the right decision when the time comes. Well, mostly sure.

I was not much good at Pac Man, or Tetris or Super Mario. Poor hand-eye coordination I guess, despite much coaching from my son. And had 13 years — that’s Years — of French and I can’t speak conversationally, though I sometimes dream in it. You are very smart, I asked Cricket.

Remember me telling you about that smart-ass kid telling me a new smartphone would have a 6-month learning curve? Imagine me telling him, “Oh, and by the way, I want to install the Duolingo app on it, also.” He would probably die laughing. I might have to borrow Cricket so she could set him straight with her barking. Three languages? Rachel, I am so impressed!

I tried Duolingo too, but somehow I couldn’t stick with it. I’m now using Memrise, which seems a better fit for me because I’m forced to review previously learned words before moving on to the next level hehe

Hi Rachel. Thanks for liking my blog today. Cricket is a cutie. I saw yarn to knit Pac Man socks and I didn’t buy it when I saw it. I still regret it. Seemed pricey at the time. I am going to go and check out Duolingo and wanted to tell you so. Best, Ruth in PIttsburgh

Morning Rachel – I too join you in your addiction. So far on my travels I have not had opportunity to use my Duolingo phrase ‘The cats are eating the beetles’ but you never know! Don’t think my pea brain could manage anything more than one language. Must dash I am off for my daily fix. Tschuss Mxxx

You are spot on. I have a friend whose daughter harvests languages. She is a systems person and once she has those patterns she is away. You are also right about the virtual Cyrillic keyboard another friend is learning Russian (another Duolingo convert!) and has down loaded one. Love Mokex

I really enjoyed this post and relate so much 🙂 I’ve just moved to Israel for a ten-month teaching fellowship and am definitely using Duolingo as a crutch. I’ve got to say it’s helping keep me on track and is the most consistent learning tool I’ve found offered online for free so far, so I’m sticking with it! 🙂 Just came across your blog and am excited to read more about your experiences in Israel.

Got it. I was reading another post and something about visiting Israel popped up underneath, but then I went back to look for it and could not find. Must have been something suggested from another blog.

My kids and husband are loving duolingo at the moment, I never seem to get time to join in. You have convinced me to give it a go.
My goal is to learn French as we want to live in France, escaping post brexit Britain!